Recent Entries
Jan 15, 2012 Me, Myself & I
2.30am: Eyes drooping after tuning G/B Elves deck since 11pm.
7.15am: Rise & Shine. Feels too early.
8.15am: Beauty World Centre @ Bukit Timah
8.30am: Big Breakfast Deluxe @ Macdonlads.
8.45am: Farid’s Arrival
9.30am: Grand Prix Trial KL Begins.
10.00am: First Loss of the day.
4.00pm: 6 hours later and I’m looking at a 5 Loss, 1 Win scoreline.
Oh man, what can I say, the metagame for the current season is so volatile that the only expectation you can set for yourself is to expect the unexpected.
After nearly 5 weeks of ‘seasoning’ myself with the G/B Elves-Tron deck, I thought that I’d stand a good chance, figuring that the metagame is going to be filled with creatures (Delvers/Humans/Wolves) heavy deck, but lo and behold, it was more of a 70% U/x Control vs the rest of the field.
Shocking, indeed, if you even know what all these jargon means.
Still the lesson at the end of the day is…. *wait for it*… ‘Take it on the chin and move on.’
That’s right, sometimes things merely progresses on its own, ‘market forces’ traders would call it, and these are things that one can’t expect to be certain of at any time, and so the best bet that one can ultimately make is to estimate where this ‘progression’ leads to, and how to best live with it.
And then sometimes, you’ve just got to wing it and spin it.
On a sidenote, Beauty World Centre didn’t seem to have changed much since the early 90s when I first patronised it regularly, and I kind of enjoyed the nostalgic ambience it had.
Awesme!
Jan 4, 2012 Football
Manchester City won, but as I glanced at the game stats…
… Liverpool was the much more dominant team, with a possession difference (advantage) of 28%??
Had more shots at goal, even though there weren’t on target, and stll couldn’t score?
It’s been the plague of the season hasn’t it for Liverpool, that we’re dominatiing games and fail to capitalise with a win.
At least on previous occasions we could be blaming the posts, the bars, the referees and beach balls, but this time round, it’s just a drab loss and one has to take the bitter pill of humility and admit that we’ve been beaten comprehensively.
These things happen right? (Giving myself an excuse for the loss..)
The ball is round right? (Soothing myself temporarily in facing the loss..)
Gotta pick up the pieces and move on eh? (Motivating myself to continue supporting the losing team..)
Gotta face the same thing again twice within the month in the League Cup?? OH no~!
Dec 26, 2011 Me, Myself & I
Phew.. And I thought that Stickerdojo.com would be lost in the wilderness of the world wide web forever…
And then it hit me that youths around the world, okay maybe around singapore that takes trains (when they’re not breaking down) and buses still need their fix of custom printed EZ-link stickers, and how cruel it’d be to rob them off of this opportunity.
Oh, how could I just sit by and do nothing, denying these youths the chance to express themselves?
I remember a wise man once said ‘When good men do nothin, evil triumphs’.
Or something like that.
And so Stickerdojo.com is back online, enabling youths to sticker up their EZ-links and brining joy and smiles back into our faces.
Dec 11, 2011 Me, Myself & I
I’ll have to admit that I was certainly expecting a far more mesmerising movie, but for what The Muppets had to offer, i was nostalgically, pleasingly and wholly entertained.
I’m certainly glad that I didn’t give it a pass. Cue, wide, beaming smile.
The original Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show
I have to admit that The Muppet Show, or TMS, was not at all on my radar and I only chanced upon it while browsing for reviews of Breaking Dawn, the ‘in’ movie right now — why, everybody loves sultry vampires, shirtless-werewolves and a-teen-angsted-girl-that-can’t-wait-to-get-it right?
Apprently, after reading enough reviews of Breaking Dawn: Part 1, it dawned on me that there’s only 2 things worth noting of that movie.
1) That ‘wedding ceremony dream’ and 2) the ‘bella and baby birthing’ scenes. Ok, next!
And then there was The Muppets, a show that I’ve never really loved nor went all out to catch an episode of, but somehow reading its reviews won and warmed every bits and pieces of my heart, of which Breaking Dawn’s reviews managed to tear, crush and disappoint succesfully,
Here’s a disclaimer though: Unless you are an animated character yourself, The Muppets will probably bore you halfway into show, but if you’ve always had that little kid in you lying dormant for a very long time, then there’s no better movie to let it out to than this.
Like I mentioned earlier, it’s a nostalgically, pleasing show that puts you in a world where the only line drawn between Man and Muppets are… oh, there’s no line!
For goodness’ sake, it’s The Muppets!
The movie is musically pompous, and comically graphic, but take nothing away from its ability to reel you emotionally into their world, a world which is in danger of being wiped away due to Kermit’s initial act of passing over the Muppets Studios’ deeds to an oil baron, in hopes of better care, and as we all know too soon, it’s all but a scam!
That’s where Walters, our main lovable star comes in, and I must say how spot on the guys at Disney were in building up his character from the start, as it’s hard to not empathise for Walters as he watch his brother, Gary, grows up.
While all the growing up happens, all of a sudden you’re whisked into the magical and maddening, earnest and endearing world of the Muppets, as they seek once more to preserve themselves, and as much as I’d like to say how much of a cliche this movie is, it all somehow feels warm and fuzzy, and everything is good.
As The Muppets climaxed and went for it’s closing moments, I felt a tingling sensation at the back of my tear glands, where I’d sum up the feeling as if I was transported back into the 80′s, where watching hand-driven puppets were as convincing as today’s 3D graphics.
Indeed if you were to ask I’d retort with ‘who needs 3D’ when you’ve the Muppets?
Indeed, all those high star ratings for The Muppets have been wholesomely deserved, and as for Breaking Dawn, oh well, I think that I’ll still pass!
And now, if only I can get one of them ‘travel-by-map’ button…
Dec 2, 2011 Me, Myself & I
Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.
- Bill Shankly
.. and I wholeheartedly agrees so. I miss football dearly, after weeks of non-football action. D*mn the rain.
Nov 26, 2011 Me, Myself & I
What’s this? Why, it’s Magic: the gathering, or MTG for shorts.
This was the deck that I piloted at the recent Friday Night Magic, or FNM at Gameshaven, where I received my best score in an FNM to date.
What’s FNM? Nothing much really, just a weekly MTG competition where players from all walks of life gather themselves (and their deck of precariously assembled cards) for a shot at CCG glory.
What’s CCG? Collectible Card Games, but some parties refer to MTG as a TCG, short for Trading Card Game, because trading of these cards is very much a healthy on-going occasion almost daily.
Enough about acronyms et all eh? I guess enough for today. Perhaps I’ll reserve another post for more showering of praise on this great game.
Here, enjoy browsing at my decklist, brought to you by the fine folks at mtgdeckbuilder.net. I call it MonoBlack Flails — not to mistake Flails with Fails though!
MTG, loving it.
Nov 5, 2011 Me, Myself & I
I can’t help it but to steal kisses as she’s sleeping.. so serene, so calm, so peaceful she is..
Oh what was it that I wanted to blog about? Let’s see..
How about.. Liverpool FC? My second religion, if you had to ask, and how I’m having mixed thoughts of how the season has been. Our next league game is against Swansea, a team where I used to pick while playing Championship Manager of old, playing from 3rd division, and all the way rising through the ranks into the Premiere League — not without one or two cheat codes of course! *winks*
Swansea doesn’t really allay that much of a concern to me, but it’s the trips afterwards, after the international break, to Chelsea and the hosting of Manchester City, before heading back to meet Chelsea that sorts of gives me the chill, because Liverpool never really gets an awesome result, to put it mildly, whenever they return from the break. Splendid indeed.
So what else..
NS! Of which I’ve managed to succesfully, dodge all the obstacles thrown, subversed and darted in my way. From late-comers to late-bloomers, NS turned out to be a revelation!
For the first time, I had to man the helm of my unit on my own, and though it wasn’t easy, the truth is I thought I kinda liked it. The perks that came along with being the biggest bad-ass on the pitch became quite a challenge and a thrill indeed. There’ll be guys that will dog you on for mild incentives like taking shortcuts and short breaks, annoying you a little as the requests pile on, and then there are those that will look to you as a source of motivation and inspiration, driving you forward until the end of the day.
Indeed it’s not a place that I personally chose to be in, but it’s one that I’ll heartily grab at, and given the opportunity, I’m inclined to think that I did no harm for that period, of 4 days of maintenance training, where for the first time also, I cleared my physical proficiency tests, my high-powered sub-machine gun marksmanship, as well as acing the wilfully hand-held revolver classification shootings. Thank god!
And then..
After years of taking a break from the collectible card game, I went straight back into competitive magic, still chasing for that one Friday Night Magic, or FNM win!
With what time I’ve left after my NS commitments, the magic deck I crafted and piloted at JCube’s FNM is probably the strongest ever deck that I’ve ever used for FNM. Despite losing all three closely contested pairings for the night, I think I ended up with valuable lessons from a few awesome people there, with this memorable quote that I likely will remember for nights to come: “A 5 casting cost card should be winning the game for you when it comes out. It’s the card that turns the tide into your favour. That’s what a 5 casting cost card should do in today’s metagame.“
The credit to the quote goes to a certain Russell, branded as ‘loud’ by my pals, but skillful and thoughtful nevertheless, as those words of his rang within my earlobes as if giving me that wake up call that I’ve been ignoring all these while. Why have I been ignoring it, when I’ve known it all along?
I think you know how sometimes there are things where one is fully and highly aware of and yet keeps doing the same mistake of not paying heed to them, only to indulge in games of questions involving ‘Why?’s. Well I guess it’s human nature to be reminded of things that should matter to them.
Sometimes a timely reminder is all that we need, and (I guess) fortunately for me, another timely reminder is on its way soon — the Hari Raya Haji holidays, a much needed 2 days off-from-work break.
Perhaps it’s time to take a break from life’s chalice of chaos and mayhem and invest into a well spent lull of a time with my loved ones.
Ooh, that’s another challenge indeed for me!
Nov 1, 2011 Me, Myself & I
Of my 4 day NS maintenance training passed by in a flash, and I’m a tad too tired to devulge more than I’m able to tonight so..
3 more days to go lor!
Oct 25, 2011 Me, Myself & I
Love makes the world go round.
And I love these two much, much, much.
My dad with my lovely little baby.
Okay I lied, cos It’s actually my uncle’s son, but isn’t he just so adorable?
Shower kids with love and they’ll grow to appreciate and be generous in the currency of the heart.
You could even shower them with a birthday party and smile beamingly like my dad here.
He threw a birthday party for little Irfan and I’m jealous because I didn’t even get one when I turned one!
Or perhaps not that I could remember but…
… cute birthday cake right?
The strawberries and mangoes are screaming “bite me, bite me!” while the cream, well it’s just white uh?
In any case, I’m not a fan of cakes, so even if it looks deliciously yummy, I don’t think I’ll miss not eating this.
But I do miss this yummy little boy here.
One of God’s gift for us to appreciate and nurture and love.
Oops, make that TWO of God’s gift to appreciate greatly, nurture endlessly and love unconditionally.
Yummy.
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